BI Survey: Tablet video consumption is about to explode

The popularity of mobile smart devices has brought changes to many industries. People are increasingly inclined to consume content on their mobile phones or tablets. They play games, read e-books, shop, etc., and of course, video is one of the main needs. With the maturity of the network environment and the improvement of device configuration, watching videos on mobile devices has become the choice of many people.

With the opening of 4G LTE networks in many European and American countries as well as Japan and South Korea, video viewing has been brought an unprecedented smooth experience. At the same time, smart devices have attracted a large number of young users, who are very receptive to mobile videos, which has indirectly promoted the development of mobile videos. Among them, tablets have fully utilized the advantages of large screens and are superior to smartphones in mobile video experience. More and more people use tablets to watch videos.

A survey report from BI analyzed the mobile video ecosystem, user behavior, etc., and analyzed the position of tablets in mobile video. It also listed five major phenomena to explain how tablets became mainstream in mobile video:

1. The peak usage of tablet users is on weekends or evenings, when families usually sit together to watch TV. Tablets can be well integrated into the family, and parents often watch with their children, which is the same as traditional TV habits, and tablet users tend to spend more time watching videos.
2. A comScore survey in 2012 found that among the top ten favorite functions of tablet users, two are related to tablets: watching videos and sharing videos. For smartphone users, neither of them is in the top ten.
3. Like e-commerce, the large screen on tablets can have higher conversion rates and click-through rates, and the revenue from video ads on tablets is relatively much higher.
4. Tablet users are more likely to ditch pay-TV subscriptions in favor of downloading content from Hulu, Apple TV, Netflix and Google TV.
5. For the youngest user group in the United States, that is, users between the ages of 14 and 23, the number of people who watch TV programs on tablets is almost the same as watching Blu-ray discs or DVDs. The data shows that 25% of respondents watch TV on tablets every day or weekly, and 24% watch it on DVDs or Blu-ray players.

The survey results are similar to what we have written before about the huge role that tablets play in mobile e-commerce. Tablets also play an important role in mobile video. This is mainly due to the large screen and long battery life of tablets. The feeling of holding a TV in your hand and being able to move it at any time is far better than staring at a TV hanging on the wall. The richness of its content and the degree of user control are incomparable to TV.

Currently, the tablet market is dominated by iPads, but low-priced Android tablets are gradually catching up in terms of shipments. According to IDC statistics, the overall shipment volume reached 52.5 million units in the fourth quarter of 2012 alone, and the average annual shipment volume can exceed 200 million units, and it is still growing rapidly. In the future, tablets will play an increasingly important role in mobile video.

However, for users, the video experience on tablets has not yet reached the most perfect state. According to previous surveys, as more and more screens are installed in the home, users have an increasingly strong demand for multi-screen interaction. Users watch the same content, but in the living room, the TV is still the best viewing device, in the bedroom, it is the tablet, and the mobile phone is suitable for watching on the road. If it can be switched seamlessly, the experience will be greatly improved. This is also the direction that many manufacturers are working towards, but it is still very difficult to achieve due to the difficulty of unifying the numerous protocols.

In addition, users have a demand for smarter content provision. For example, when watching a drama, updates can be automatically downloaded, or content can be automatically downloaded before going out, so that users do not need to rely on poor network on the road.

Article from: iFanr